Small businesses are traditionally forced to spend a significant amount of resources on tasks that are unrelated to the main focus of their business. Examples of these tasks for a small business acting as a Seller include obtaining financing, managing financing transactions, identifying potential commercial customers, determining viability and suitability of potential commercial customers (e.g., credit evaluation), engaging commercial customers, completing orders for the commercial customers, preparing and managing all the paperwork associated with the commercial transaction, managing accounts receivable which are the outcome of a commercial transaction with the engaged customer for which credit terms were extended, receiving payments on accounts receivable, applying those received payments, preparing deposit tickets and depositing received payments, handling disputes over commercial transactions, managing relationship with commercial customers, etc. Examples of these tasks for a small business acting as a Buyer include locating commercial concerns capable of providing requested products and services, requesting financing, providing and transferring the information requested by the located commercial concern in order to approve the requested financing, obtaining financing (e.g., domestic trade credit, net 30 net 60), preparing and sending purchase orders, receiving product or service, receiving commercial transaction documentation which may include detail concerning the amount and date moneys are owed, confirming the accuracy of commercial transaction documentation, scheduling requests for payment, on the scheduled date identifying that sufficient funds are available to make payment, initiating payment, reconciling and closing the commercial transaction, etc.
Traditionally, managing these tasks either for a Seller or a Buyer requires significant resource allocation as Sellers and Buyers utilize traditional tools (e.g., phone calls, voice mail messages, faxes, mail, etc) to approve and manage their relationships with each other, the commercial transactions resulting from those relationships, and the commercial transactions documents resulting from those transactions. Larger businesses are able to handle many of these transactions using automated systems and properly staffed and trained departments. Additionally, they often offer transactional services to their customers over the Internet. Small businesses generally are not able to dedicate the same level of human or technological resources to these administrative functions as their larger counterparts. Driving this inequity are the scale and capital base required to justify the human and technological investment made by larger companies.
Small businesses also face problems when they seek to offer business to business e-commerce services to their customers. E-commerce can replace phone calls, faxes, invoicing, direct sales, and other communication means traditionally used in buying, selling, and post-sales customer support between businesses. However, business to business e-commerce poses challenges for small businesses. For example, small companies do not generally have the resources to implement e-commerce solutions or gain real time knowledge regarding new customers.
Thus, there is a need in the marketplace to facilitate and/or conduct business to business financial and transaction management services for small companies, thereby alleviating internal workload constraints and saving business managers and owners from unnecessary distractions.
Small businesses also face difficulties when obtaining financing from traditional financing institutions. In many cases, small business are unable to meet a financial institution's minimum criteria, and are thus declined for the requested financing. As financial institutions have a substantial investment in the distribution channels (e.g., branch network, sales force, Internet, brand awareness, etc.) necessary to attract prospective customers and migrate existing customers to new products and services, declining small businesses for financing creates enormous sunk costs for financial institutions. Further, being declined by a financial institution forces small businesses to seek financing elsewhere, requiring them to repeat the financing request process.
The traditional referral model, which is designed to extract value from customers that are declined for financing—“declinations”—or that are referred for other reasons, is cumbersome and incapable of recouping the substantial value that exists within these declinations. In the traditional referral model, financial institutions seek to extract value from these declinations by recommending or providing information on alternative solution providers. Although such alternative solution providers may not be owned by the financial institution, suggesting an alternative solution provider lessens the negative effect of the financial institutions' inability to meet the financing needs of its customers and prospects. The financial institution may also be able to obtain fee income from the alternative solution providers.
The traditional referral process, which is paper-intensive and includes little if any automation, breeds inefficiencies as financial institutions seek to compile, refer, track, and manage referrals to alternative solution providers. In addition, as financial institutions refer declinations to alternative solution providers and declinations become the customers of these alternative solution providers, financial institutions erode their relationship, access, and brand exposure to declinations. As a result of this erosion, financial institutions cannot fully leverage the value to the franchise which may exist within the declinations.
Thus, there is a need for an automated system and method that manages and tracks declinations and referrals. There is a further need for a system that allows financial institutions or any other party that may provide referrals to more completely recoup the sunk cost that exists within their declined customers and prospects, but cannot be captured through the traditional declination and referral model. More generally, there is a need for a system and method for referring parties in a manner which improves and deepens the relationship between the referring party and the referred party. Further, there is a need for a system and method for financial institutions to automate the delivery of targeted content, products, and services to declinations. Further still, there is a need for a declination referral model that provides alternative credit offers to small businesses not qualifying for credit from a financial institution. Yet even further, there is a need to enable a plurality of financial institutions to seamlessly deliver a full complement of banking products and services to declined customers and prospects while retaining access and maintaining brand exposure to these declined customers and prospects.